ETFs might eventually stand for European Traded Funds, if current growth rates hold up.

European ETF assets have increased 35 percent through August this year, while U.S. ETF assets increased 22 percent in the same period.

The new data comes from a recent IndexUniverse article on a Barclays Global Investors report on, well, global investing.

Though total ETF assets in Europe ($192.1 billion) still lag far behind those in the U.S. ($607 billion), there are more ETFs and providers across the pond (751 and 33) than there are stateside (710 and 22).

While Europeans have more funds and providers to choose from, they still pay slightly higher expense ratios than American do. Yet European actively managed mutual funds have much higher costs than their American counterparts, so the gap between ETF and mutual fund costs is greater in Europe, giving those investors more incentive to enter the ETF market. 

Edited by: Adam Kommel


Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE